The NCIT – A world-class broadband engineering institute

A Successful College/Industry

Partnership Algonquin College and

the National Capital Institute of

Telecommunications

Dr. Robert CrawhallPresident

An Outline of a Collaboration

• What is the NCIT?• The Tele-Haptic Project• Building a Partnership• Lessons Learned• Looking Forward

• The NCIT develops telecommunications technologies through collaboration.

• We emphasize demonstration and commercialization

• We are working with world-class leaders to commercialize a suite of capabilities into a variety of industry sectors

NCIT: Fourth Pillar Organization

The NCIT is a fourth pillar organization, an innovation-enabler and multiplier organization, complementing business, industry and government and education by bringing together diverse stakeholder groups to focus in collaborative opportunities.

MembersAlcatelNortel NetworksQNX Rational Communications Research Centre CanadaNational Research Centre CanadaAlgonquin CollegeUniversity of OttawaCarleton UniversityOCRI

Research PartnersMPB TechnologiesPangaea New MediaSION InternationalX-Ray BraodbandHandshake InteractiveBUL/Bell Mobility

InitiativesFellowshipsOttawa Photonics Research Alliance (OPRA)Ottawa Wireless Research Alliance (OWRA)Photonics Prize

Funding SourcesCFIOITORDCF

Competencies Built on 4 Thrust Areas

• Multimedia• Networking• Wireless• Fiber Optics

Our members and research partners are connected via NCIT*net. A three-wave length metropolitan advanced research network spanning the city.

NCIT*net

Tele-Haptics at Algonquin A Case Study

NCIT and Tele-haptics

Application Dexterous Training

Wireless Workplace Mobility

Networking Seamless, Robust High Performance

Photonics Sensors, Low Latency Networks

Touch; The Third Human Sense on the Internet

A Chain of Events

• A global set of players explore Haptics independently• Kevin Smith from CSIRO sabbatical at NRC• identifies Francis Bogsanyi and key companies• NCIT draws together Ottawa interest in Haptics• Project defined and taken to tech committee• OIT funding allows prompt purchase of equipment• Student projects defined within Algonquin

IEEE International Workshop

Working with Canarie

Pangaea Collaborative Environment

Ottawa and Australian Research Institutes join forces to extend touch over global networks and industrialise the InternetMontréal 19 November 2002The National Capital Institute of Telecommunications (NCIT) and the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIR0) in partnership with several Canadian technology companies are industrialising the Internet by capitalising on the ability to "touch" over a network. In a recent demonstration, a surgeon in Australia guided a trainee in Canada 16.000 km away to perform a simulated cholecystectomy, an operation to remove the gall bladder. …

Global Visibility

Current Status

• State-of-the-Art Lab at Algonquin

• 10 Students involved in 2 projects

• 3 companies tightly engaged

• Demonstration capability for the NCIT builds momentum

• Basis of several follow-on project proposals

Algonquin Assessment• Generates interest in applied research from

students and faculty• Gives students cutting edge job relevant

experience• Demonstrates to industry what colleges can do

in the area of applied research• Attracts additional funding opportunities• Leads to applied research activities with new

partners• Leads to collaboration with other research

institutes

Algonquin College & the NCIT; Building a Partnership

Dr. Robert Gillet, President Algonquin College - NCIT Board of Directors

Dr. Jack Treuhaft – Director, Director of Applied Research and Development, Algonquin College NCIT Technology Committee

Dr. Maike Miller, , Seconded from Algonquin College, Vice-President Research Alliances NCIT

Francis Bogsanyi – NCIT Researcher, Algonquin College

NCIT – A Collaborative Web

• NCIT Project Management

• International Partnerships – CSIRO Australia

• Demonstrations – Canarie 2002, HAVE 2002, IST 2003

• Commercialization – SME’s, Industrial Users

• Partners – Federal Laboratories, Universities

Lessons Learned• College plays an important part in a web of innovation

• Chose to manage the college program as a separate entity from the university program

• Colleges can respond quickly and imaginatively

• Employment structure of Professors and researchers is very different from the university

• IPR structure is closer to industrial

• Relationship of students to research is dependent on skills and project structure

• Many industrial users are more likely to employ a college graduate

Looking Forward

• Build on this model for other technologies

• Create linkages to other colleges

• Increase the engagement between College and Federal Labs

• Develop relationship with universities

• Build a more formal model for engagement between students and industry

• Ensure critical mass for long term program

Thank You